The group was welcomed by Robert Booth (Director of Land Services) who gave a brief overview of Glasgow’s commitment to the promotion of cycling. Three presentations were then given to the cities on:

- Cycling in Glasgow (Allan Maclean, Cycling Officer, Land Services)
- School Travel Plans in Glasgow (Katy Gillies, Senior School Travel Plan Officer, Land Services)
- Promotion and Marketing of Cycling (Michael Addiscott, Cycling Scotland)

A fourth presentation was later given to the group which gave a more strategic view of transport policy in Glasgow and an explanation of the structures in place to incorporate cycling:

- Transport Policy in Glasgow (Marshall Poulton, Head of Policy and Planning, Land Services)

In the afternoon, the group were given bicycles and taken on a cycle tour of Glasgow. The tour started in the city centre and include a visit to a local primary school where children presented the work they had done on their School Travel Plan. The tour then continued to demonstrate the variety of cycle network routes and infrastructure in Glasgow. More details can be found in Section 5 of this report.

Presentation on Cycling in Glasgow

Allan Maclean (Cycling Officer) explained that the Council has a Cycling Unit comprised of himself, a Team Leader (Jonathan Plant) and a Cycling Technician (John Walker). Together they responsible for such aspects as network expansion, project implementation and continued promotion of cycling.

Much of the work involves retrofitting the existing road network with provision for cyclists. Levels of cycling are measured using automatic counting devices. At present there is 120 km of cycle network. Targets for expansion are 250km by 2008 and 375 by 2012. This represents an average 24km extra per year and is complemented by the intention to have a 30% reduction in traffic levels from the city centre.

Presentation on School Travel Plans in Glasgow

The presentation given by Katy Gillies was usually aimed at parents of school children but gave the group a good idea of the necessary considerations for encouraging school travel plans.

The key points were:

- The importance of gaining participation from teachers, parents and others was expressed.
- The potential for school travel plan work to form part of the child’s curriculum, e.g. relevance to learning maths and science.
- The potential to raise health awareness and increase levels in health by encouraging children to seek more physically active forms of travel. At present only 1 in 4 boys and 1 in 3 girls are meeting the targets for physical activity. Obesity is a serious threat in the UK.
- How adopting alternative travel behaviour can lead to gains in social interaction amongst children.
- The problem is often not about convincing the children of the benefits but about convincing their parents who are concerned about safety and security of options other than the private car.
- Initiatives such as the ‘Walking Bus’ can be effective, but require significant supervision.

Presentation on the promotion and marketing of cycling

Michael Addiscott of Cycling Scotland explained that the primary target of marketing was to reduce the dominance of the car in transport. The main issues presented were:

- Direct versus passive forms of communication and the effectiveness of each.
- Whether to enforce or encourage voluntary participation in changing transport behaviour. Obviously, over killing either of these techniques can lead to either people being dissuaded if the enforcement is too strong or being lazy if it is left to their own devises as to whether they will change.
- It is important to be able to back up your statements with hard infrastructure in place, otherwise an increase in positive behaviour initially can begin to fade as people become disillusioned and eventually dissuaded from continuing the use of alternatives. Michael posed the question, do we deserve people’s attention, is there a ‘pull’ in place?
- A sales-led approach is what is arguably needed in order to convince people of the attractiveness of alternative modes.

Presentation on Transport Policy in Glasgow

Marshall Poulton (Head of Policy and Planning, Land Services) explained that the Land Service department covered all aspects of roads, transport and parks (i.e. all black and green space). The department is considerable in size and employs 3000 people. Glasgow is one of the most densely covered cities in Europe in terms of its green space (32%).

The city is waiting for the introduction of a national transport strategy being devised by the Scottish Executive and due for the end of 2005. Underneath this is a first draft regional strategy as well as local strategies in place for current direction. As such, the city follows a ‘bottom-up’ (local up) approach regarding transport development.

The city features a high proportion of public transport use (68%) and has a good strategic rail system. Annual traffic growth at 1.8% is relatively stable. Possible projects for the future include a tram system for the harbourside, further expansion of Park & Ride capacity, and application of intelligent transport systems.

Bicycle Tour

In the afternoon of Day 1, the group were taken on a bicycle tour led by Allan Maclean (Cycling Officer). Some of the highlights are displayed below.

Above – Allan explains the prospective route to the group whilst they pick up their bicycles.

The group were shown cycle infrastructure in the city centre which entailed priority signalling to allow bicycles through. A speed device located on top of traffic lights is able to observe the speed of oncoming cyclists and change signals accordingly.

Above – Allan explains the prospective route to the group whilst they pick up their bicycles.

The group were taken along bus lanes which allow shared use by cyclists. Glasgow are looking to increase the numbers of lanes like this.

The group were taken to Annette Street Primary School where pupils gave a presentation on the Travel Plan they had recently completed. The school are looking to introduce new cycle parking on the premises and they already have a special notice board which communicates the work done by the school regarding transport and other environmental/sustainability activities.

The group were taken on a number of ‘green routes’ throughout the city, as well as some of the commuter routes used by cyclists. Above (left) is an example of a route which follows the River Clyde. Above (right) an automatic cycle counter is shown which records data using embedded cables in the path. The post to the side is used to store the data which is collected by connecting a portable computer.

The Council have a developed a showcase cycle route called the ‘Kelvin Way’. This has undergone promotion using TV advertising and is an example of well established cycle infrastructure suitable for both commuting and leisure. Above (left) signage indicates the presence of the cycle network, as does the sign (above right) which gives information on a national cycle network route.